HospitalityUnite, Powered by Harri, to Support Kickstart Initiative

HospitalityUnite supports the Kickstart Scheme

A new website connecting hospitality operators with young people eligible for the government’s Kickstart scheme has been launched by HospitalityUnite.

Credit: Propel
 
The HospitalityUnite website, set up to help hospitality workers find alternative employment during lockdown, is now switching focus to support the government’s Kickstart initiative for young people with the backing of leading trade association UKHospitality, Springboard, The Scottish Tourism Alliance and The Youth Group. It will provide a free online service to make it easy for both hospitality businesses and those 16-24 year-olds wanting to start a career in the restaurant, pub, hotel, bar and wider leisure sector to take advantage of the new government funded scheme.
 
As part of the UK’s recovery strategy, the government is putting £2bn into the Kickstart programme which will fund six months of 25 hours a week work at national minimum wage for 16-24 year-olds, giving them a ‘kickstart’ into their working lives. Only government approved candidates can apply to Kickstart roles and these candidates are being directed to Hospitality Unite jobs courtesy of The Youth Group and its partnership with the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) assessors. The Youth Group, a youth-first company which improves opportunities for young people, has a community of 1.5 million looking to build a career in the current challenging post-covid environment.
 

The original HospitalityUnite not-for-profit jobs portal was created in March free-of-charge by the team at Harri, the online people management platform. This new initiative has already secured commitment from several hospitality groups, including BrewDog, Burger King UK and The Ivy Collection, and the HospitalityUnite team expects more than 200 businesses to sign up. Operating companies taking part will receive exclusive access to these approved candidates and free use of the hiring platform to post jobs, screen candidates, conduct video interviewing and send offer letters. Free employability training will also be available.

At the beginning of lockdown, Harri set up the website initiative, with the backing of UK Hospitality and The Scottish Tourism Alliance, to bring together businesses in other sectors such as care and retail to support hospitality staff with short term employment stop gaps while their sites were closed. Working with the likes of Amazon, Waitrose, Care UK and Morrisons it processed over 300,000 applications.

“The need for homegrown talent in hospitality will be vital through the course of 2021. Brexit barriers to entry for ‘unskilled’ workers post 1st January will make these Kickstart applicants all the more crucial to the industry’s revival.

We welcome all operators throughout hospitality and tourism to join the HospitalityUnite Kickstart initiative, which in partnership with The Youth Group, will seamlessly process your government application on your behalf again at no charge,” said Harri director Pete Willis.

Kate Nicholls, Chief Executive of UKHospitality, which is supporting the initiative, said: “This is a really positive way of promoting the government’s Kickstart programme, set up to assist sectors like ours. We know from experience that hospitality benefits hugely from the enthusiasm, talents and innovation of young people in its workforce. As hospitality embarks on a journey of recovery after the impacts of the covid crisis, those attributes will be more valuable than ever, and the portal will be a great access point for people looking to break into exciting hospitality careers.”